140 character social network, Twitter is one short of a decade long existence. Introduced as an idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group, Twitter today has grown to more than 284 million users worldwide and is expanding. While in India, Twitter has steered clear from sharing local numbers, but the country happens to be one of the fastest growing market.

Over the nine years the network has evolved, controversies have followed, mankind has changed the way it communicates but Twitter continues to stay the way it was. Celebrating the occasion, Gabriel Stricker, Chief Communications Officer, wrote on the company blog: “At our nine-year mark, we continue to say that Twitter is what it is because of the people who use it. After all, it’s because of you that we have product features like hashtags and best practices like live-Tweeting. Today, these are deeply rooted elements of Twitter and part of mainstream cultural vernacular.”

On this occasion we look back at the nine landmark moments shared by Twitter that have defined the medium as well as history.